UK, US, and France lowest hotel review scores in 2017

Last year, guests wrote 27% more reviews, and hoteliers responded to 30% of the total

The UK is among the three worst countries for average hotel review scores according to guest feedback management provider Revinate.

In its 2018 Global Hotel Reputation Benchmark Report the software as a service (SaaS) company analysed 132 million online guest reviews from 138,000 properties across 200 countries over the last two years.

Looking at established markets – those with more than 100,000 annual reviews – hotels in China (4.53), Greece (4.36), and Mexico (4.29) received the highest average ratings, while the United Kingdom (4.07), the United States (4.03), and France (3.94) received the lowest.

This country-specific data is consistent with the global increase in review ratings. Scores grew compared to 2016 in all markets except South Africa and France, which remained flat. Japan was the only market that decreased year-over-year (0.47% decrease).

China and Indonesia experienced the greatest growth in their average scores compared with the previous year, with Brazil and Mexico also seeing a marked increase.

Revinate say the data confirms that the overall sentiment towards Asian and Latin American hotels is improving at a faster pace than other regions.

Marc Heyneker, Revinate co-founder and CEO said: “The analysis of average review scores in established markets confirmed the key findings of our global benchmark. Guests rated their hotel stays more positively than in 2016, with four Asia Pacific and Latin America-based markets experiencing the biggest increases.

“In order to keep growing their scores in 2018, hoteliers must keep pace with their online review responses in order to maintain a strong and positive online presence.”

Revinate’s report also found that 74% of all reviews in 2017 came from Booking.com, Google, TripAdvisor, and Facebook, with the latter entering the top four for the first time and Google doubling its review volume compared to 2016.

Last year, guests wrote 27% more reviews, and hoteliers responded to 30% of the total.